Situational awareness refers to the degree of accuracy by which one's perception of his current environment mirrors reality. With regard to the operation of an aircraft, situational awareness relates to a pilot's perception of what is happening to the aircraft within the four dimensions of space and time. Situational awareness also relates to the pilot's comprehension of a present situation and a projection of the status of the aircraft into the near future.
During the operation of an aircraft, multiple operational parameters and systems must be monitored simultaneously, including the airspeed, attitude, engines, fuel management, navigation indicators, and weather radar. Many of these operational parameters and systems on the aircraft must be supervised by a pilot reacting to subtle changes in the alignment of needles on gauges or of pictorial displays on screens.
The Flight Management System (FMS) has become the core computing and integration system that controls all navigational functions of an aircraft. The FMS provides the primary outputs for the display of data to a flight crew. In the advancement of the new technology associated with the FMS, multifunction displays have been developed in order to take advantage of the great variety of options available for the display of aircraft data. The present application claims new displays or presentations of aircraft data associated with a FMS. The present invention provides displays of aircraft data that is intended to increase the situational awareness of the members of a flight crew. The displays of the present invention employ commercially available systems that may be used without modification to supply the necessary signals to operate the displays of the present invention.
The present invention relates to improved displays of aircraft operation data that increase the situational awareness of a pilot and flight crew. More particularly, the displays of the present invention include an electronic display showing a graphic indicator of Actual Navigation Performance/Required Navigation Performance (ANP/RNP) for Area Navigation (RNAV) environments and precision approaches for an aircraft wherein the display is comprised of a RNP symbol, an ANP symbol, and a Course symbol. The display of the present invention may also include numeric values of RNP and ANP. The display of the present invention may also include complementary shaped RNP and Course symbols to allow a pilot to visually assess the present course of an aircraft in relation to RNP. The display of the present invention may also include changing depictions of an ANP symbol in the event of an aircraft exceeding RNP for a flight condition. The display of the present invention may include changing colors of any or all of the symbols to indicate an event of an ANP value within or outside of the requirements of RNP.
In addition to the features mentioned above, objects and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent upon a reading of the following description.